James Kay, Owner
Who got you into snowmobiling and when; and what was their influence on you with regard to the sport?
What got me into snowmobile racing? The biggest influence that got me into racing snowmobiles would be my father, Earl Kay, and John Wicht III. It essentially started with my father, Earl Kay. He had me at the I-500 track as young as one year old–younger, actually: I was born in October and he had me there that January and February. He used to be the Chairman of the Board. I believe he was the Race Director for a while, also.
He did a lot of things at the track, so I grew up there. I mean, it got to be a part of my life. And it was, you know, just where I went every year with Dad. It got to be that I was old enough to start meeting racers, and around the age of 9 or 10, somewhere in there–I met John Wicht III and John Wicht, Sr. From there on out, every year they would come to the Soo, I would meet them. They’d be parking their trailer and I’d be at the door. They taught me a lot and they really welcomed me with open arms. It was a friendship that was built beyond racing. Watching him run the Soo I-500 by himself, was always a dream of mine to follow in his footsteps because I always thought that was really cool.
That’s why I run the #52. I’ve always run a 52, it’s just been a part of me throughout my life. I ran 52 as part of my race number back when I started racing sno-cross; I was 19 years old then, and my number was 852. I started racing sno-cross in 2000. I raced the ASRA and the CSRA circuit. I traveled all over Northern Michigan and throughout parts of Canada; I got to race some dome events down at the Pontiac Silver Dome. My rookie year, I made the podium for all three classes that I raced in: I took 3rd place for the season in Stock 600, Stock 440, and the Open class. That was a pretty proud moment, starting off like that.
When did you start racing and what is your proudest achievement so far at the track?
The next highlight of my career would be in 2011 when I was part of the G-Wiz Racing Team, or Gutter Wizard, on the #37 race sled. When I got invited to ride with them, we took third place at the Soo I-500. That was a very proud moment there, to be a part of that crew. We had a good group of guys, all different ages, all different walks of life that came together and we formed a very good team and we did really well.
You know, and that’s something that a lot of people don’t realize about enduro racing: essentially, we are one big family. You know, I’ve seen guys need help, I’ve needed help, and we all come together. Yeah, we want to beat each other [on the race track], but we help each other out. And that’s the thing I love about the Soo I-500. It’s the camaraderie at that place. It’s just amazing.
What is your career goal as an owner?
A career goal for me, for the #52 Ironman Racing team, would be to win the Soo International 500. That would be an amazing feat. That being said, that is a very difiifuclt feat to be there at the end of the day when that checkered flag flies. It’s a feat all on its own, which–we succeeded in that goal in 2023. In my eyes, we did really well in 2023. We didn’t have a good qualifying set-up, so we had to sit and wait for a scratch to get in the show. Lo and behold, there were enough scratches that we were able to make the starting grid. And the stars aligned; we were able to work our way from 37th, or 38th, wherever we started at, to 15th when the checkered flag dropped. I am very proud of that accomplishment that we had that day. We had two different style race teams that came together: it was myself, my son Takota, and we had Thomas Wisner from Wisner Racing. Wisner brought their whole crew and we came together. We butted heads a little but, but we came together and we were able to keep the sled out on the track. We fell off the pace a little bit, but we were able to muscle-up through and just keep grinding laps. Eventually, it paid off for us. We got the 15th place trophy that year. We also were awarded the Lynn Filipchek Hard Charger Award for gaining, I think it was, 22 positions. And then I was awarded the Skid Roe Award for sportsmanship. So, in my eyes, we had a great year.
2024, we didn’t do so well. We struggled in 2024. If it wasn’t for John Hoos from the #67 Hoos Racing team, I don’t know… They helped us out tremendously. They knew we were struggling. John walked into our trailer, points at our primary clutch, and he says, “Hey, what weights you got in there?” I said, “Well, I got, I think I got 54s.” John said, “Give the weights, give me the clutches.” John Hoos took the clutches from our race sled, said, “I’ll be back” and went to his trailer. He came back a little while later after working some magic, handed the clutches to me and said, “I need them back at the end of the race, Okay? Go get in the show. Good luck, if you need anything, let us know.” That’s what I love about the Soo. That right there.
Then you got the #77 Brownlee Boys Racing Team, they’ll do anything to help you out. The #19, Mike Otto, Chad Bauer, Cody Bauer, the Bauer Racing boys, they’ll do anything they can to help. At Hoos, you got Tom Morgan, John and Matt Hoos, they’re great people. They help out. I could keep going, there are so many great people, even Gabe Bunkie and his crew, I know him pretty well. The Piche boys, Piche Racing, them guys, they help out. I’m honored to tell you all about these people and why I love this track and this race.
I’m rambling all over the place. I’ve already answered some questions and now i’m side-tracking, but there’s so many things at that track that I love.
I love to go up there and volunteer. I was just there, today’s the 4th or 5th of December? I was just there over the weekend, spent three days helping clear the snow, pack frost when I’m not working on a race sled or gone working because I’m a traveling union worker. I’m at the track trying to help water or help do whatever because I love that place. Something about that place that’s just, I can’t explain it. It’s the Soo I-500. It’s the granddaddy of them all.
What were the driving factors to start the race team?
How did I become a part of this team? I started this team. I started Ironman Racing back in 1998 when I took a 1996 XCR 440–’96? Or ‘98? God, I gotta remember the year; yeah, ‘96–and I went over to Christmas, MI. I had the sled in the back of my pick up, and they were having a sno-cross and an ice oval day out there, and I entered into every class I could enter. I got the snot whipped outta me in everything. Trail carbides, trying to turn laps, out there trying to double and triple and do tabletops with that big ol’ heavy sled that had no suspension. I’d been beating the sled up on the trails all season, and here I am trying to race it. I threw a ‘52’ on the windshield in little, tiny numbers, threw on some safety gear and I went over and I tried to start it up, and the announcer there said, “Man, this guy just won’t quit; he gets the Ironman award!” and it stuck.
That’s where Ironman Racing started. A couple of years later, like I mentioned before, I started racing sno-cross professionally, even as an amateur, I went to everything I traveled all over for every race. I went to Searchmont, Sudbury, Traverse City, Gaylord, Pontiac, Cadillac. I even made some trips out to the WSA series that was going at the time, went to Lake Geneva.
99% of my racing has been on Polaris. Ok, 95%: I did switch for two years racing sno-cross to Ski-doo. They just seemed like their chassis were working really well on the sno-cross circuit, so I switched to them. I’ve banged bars on the sno-cross track with some big names, met a lot of great people. I tried to stay going with my sno-cross career but unfortunately my military service cut that short. I was deployed and had to sell my race sled. I told the dealership that I got it through to go ahead and sell it for me, I’m not gonna be here. So they sold my race sled for me.
I was deployed, and when I came back, I decided I was going to take a break from racing. 2011 came around, and that’s when I got the opportunity to race for Gutter Wizard, G-Wiz racing, #37 Ski-doo. We got everybody qualified. We ended up taking 3rd place.
I did try to qualify a sled a couple of times for my, well, ex-brother-in-law, who is still a really good friend of mine and one of the riders for Ironman Racing, Richie Sutherland. We tried to qualify his sled; he had an Arctic Cat that he wanted to try to get in for a couple of years. So we, we battled with that. We did race some MIRA races with it and had a lot of fun.
I then took a break again until 2020. I got onboard another Ski-doo for George Armstrong in MIRA. I went down to the Gaylord MIRA Race–I believe it was the first Gaylord race–and I was walking around and George saw me and said, “I’ve been looking for you! Can you race my sled?” Free ride? “Yeah, I’m in.” I raced a couple of races for him. He wanted to come and race at the Soo, but we just ended up disagreeing on too many things. I wanted to change too much stuff on the sled to make it better [from my perspective], and [George] he wanted to keep it the way he wanted to keep it. So, we parted ways, and we parted ways peacefully. Shortly after, my youngest son, Tate, bought an IQR, and we started Ironman Racing back up and brought it back to life.
First year out, 2022, we made her 49 laps at the Soo and we lost the crank in the motor and she was done. Our day was over. 2023, like I said, we took 15th, and 2024 we blew a track at about, we were at lap 360, the race was about the 400 mark, and we were done for the day.
We are currently trying to get out stuff together, get some funding together, and get to the Soo for the 56th I-500. We are unsure of our plans for MIRA; we just haven’t decided what we’re going to do there, yet. Our #1 goal is the Soo I-500. We would love for the stars to align and be the first ones across the line, we would love to be the sled leading them down the front straight-a-way at lap 500 and take that checkered. That’s a big dream. In reality, will we do it? We don’t know. I would say so.
I’m to the portion of your questions now that are owner questions, some of them are repeated. So again, I would reiterate that it was my dad and John Wicht III that got me into racing. I should add this:
You know, I started being their kid, running around, having fun, learning how to water, flagging in the corners, flagging time trails. Then from thereI’ve gone to plow truck, tow sled, then being lead plow truck for a few years.
Finally, I made the jump to racing it. So I’ve gone full circle, kind of, at that place. The only thing I haven’t done is doing anything in tech or be the race director. I used to help out in the old timing shack when it was back in the old days, the way we used to do timing there. I used to help count laps, I’ve helped run the carousel on top of the bunker. I’ve got many hours plowing that track. I’m still volunteering, helping to plow the track, water it. My dad, who hasn’t been around that place for many years, hes now back up there hanging out in the press center while i’m out on the track.
It has been quite the endeavor I’ve put out there. A lot of struggles, just a privateer team. The team consists, well, did consist of me and one of my sons and his uncle. In 2022, it was myself, Takota Kay (my middle son) and Thomas Wisner when we lost it 49 laps in, the motor locked up. In 2023, the riders were again Takota, Thomas, and myself. In 2024, the riders were Takota, Richie Sutherland, and myself. We were supposed to have Tate Kay as a rookie and Matthew McGuire as a rookie, but they weren;t able to race at the Soo this past February.
We did race at Traverse City before the Soo this past season; Takota, Matthew and Tate raced there. We had motor issues at that race. After the Soo, we raced in Kinross, where, in addition to Takota and myself, my oldest son Tylor raced. Tylor shocked us all, he did awesome. We are hoping that in 2025 he’ll be a force on the sled.
For the upcoming 2025 season, Our riders will be me as the lead driver, Tylor Kay, and Richie Sutherland. I do have an amazing crew behind me, and I could have mentioned them first, but here we go. None of this would be possible without them. In 2022 and 2023, Wisner Racing was awesome to work with and their whole crew. In 2023, Kevin Titus, from Brimley, joined our team, wrenching and fueling up the sled, and now is our Team Manager. He deals with all of the phone calls and emails, trying to get us funding to race. He gets the bad news and breaks it to me, or gets the good news and breaks it to me. He runs our facebook page, our Instagram page. I can’t thank him enough for what he does for us.
We will be short one crew member this year. It’s a sore spot for me, and for us as a team. We lost our lead mechanic, and as we call him, our glue. When things got hard or tough in the shop or in the trailer, this guy always held us together and kept us reeled in. He always had a way of getting us out of our funk, out of our own way, and get us focused on the task at hand. He was the first one to dive in, didn’t matter if he had to lay down in a puddle on pit road or kneel down in a puddle of chain case oil, didn’t matter. That was Frank St. George. He was an all-around amazing person, and our team is going to be hurting without Frank.
Richie, my ex-brother-in-law, does some wrenching and provides some racing wisdom for us in addition to riding. Big Bill Hancock does whatever we ask of him. Troy and Todd Godfrey put in countless hours in the trailer. I’m forgetting people, I know, and I’m sorry; I apologize to them when they read this, I don’t remember everyone’s names. We are looking forward to everyone coming back.
Our manufacturer partners Studboy (Ron and Zach Patton), CastleX Gear, Venom, Q-Collar, 139designs, a huge thank you to them and we are looking forward to a great year with them again this year.
Richie Sutherland, Driver
I started riding snowmobiles at the age of 6. Started racing them in ovals at Cherry Speedway around 2000 till they stopped having sled races. My dad had raced when he was younger and said we would have a blast and that’s what we did. Then my brother in-law James Kay started racing endurance oval and we decided to do it together for a few years then we took a couple years break and Iron Man Racing picked up where we left off. The goal is to always to win the I-500 but just finishing top 15 is a huge accomplishment. Me and James Kay of Iron Man Racing have always been teammates from the start when poor boy racing fielded the sleds to now when Iron Man Racing owner James Kay and fields the sleds.
Tylor Kay, Driver
Who got you into snowmobiling and when; and what was their influence on you with regard to the sport?
My dad raced sleds since I was young watched him race. My uncle and grandpa always have been into racing cars in the summer time so racing all I’ve ever known.
When did you start racing and what is your proudest achievement so far on the track?
Last year I raced once and it was the most fun I’ve had on a snowmobile.
What is your career goal? Goal is always to win the I- 500, be happy to get a top 15, top 10 and work my way up towards the win.
How did you become part of this racing team? Been on the team since the beginning wrenching on the sled, standing on the bank at the soo, setting the sled up for race day. Counted laps and stood on the bank watching for the last 10 years. •